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  • It has been said that the United States was deceived into entering and expanding the Vietnam War by its own overoptimistic propaganda. The record suggests, however, that the policy-makers stayed in Vietnam not so much because of overly optimistic hopes of winning ... as because of overly pessimistic assessments of the consequences of losing.

    Jonathan Schell (1987). “The real war: the classic reporting on the Vietnam War with a new essay”, Pantheon